Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed).

Members of the Panel considered a report of the Chief Executive which provided an update on the performance of the Organisational Improvement Plan 2015/16 which included 18 key corporate priority projects set out in the Council’s Corporate Strategy.  It was reported that overall performance of the Corporate Strategy projects was good with 83% of projects rated green or complete.

The report also provided an update on all the Corporate Strategy and local performance indicators which could be reported at this time.  Performance was good with 83% of the 92 indicators achieving or exceeding their target with a further 9% performing within the 5% threshold; 8% of these indicators were below target and outside the 5% threshold.

The Organisational Improvement Plan for 2015/16 contained all priority improvement activity to be undertaken during the year by the organisation.  This included the key projects as set out in the 2014/15 Corporate Strategy.  The Plan also set out a number of business improvement, budget growth items and neighbourhood priority projects that had been agreed in 2015, and were due to run until the end of the financial year, and in some cases for larger projects into 2016/17 and beyond.

All projects were recorded in the MyProjects system along with detailed milestones and milestone tasks so that progress could be monitored and managed throughout the year.

The Corporate Strategy 2015/16 included 18 key projects.  At the end of January 2016 overall performance of key projects was good with 83.3% of the projects either completed or on track.  Six projects had been completed; nine projects were rated green; two projects were rated amber, and one project had been closed.

One project which was to ‘Deliver Improvements to Market Street’ had been closed off as progress had been made over the past year on the concept design for the town centre public realm to incorporate the Market Walk extension, Youth Zone and High Street projects.

The scope had been widened beyond Market Street to include the whole of the town centre, with Market Street likely to accommodate the Flat Iron market during the redevelopment of the Flat Iron site.  This had been incorporated into a new project to ‘improve the look and feel of the town centre’ which was considered and approved as part of the Corporate Strategy refresh in November.

The report also provided a breakdown of organisational plan projects by Corporate Priority, as of the end of January 2016.  59 projects made up the Organisational Plan for 2015/16, consisting of Corporate Strategy projects, business growth items and business improvement projects.  In addition to these projects was a further 24 neighbourhood priorities.

Data on the current position of projects, not including the individual neighbourhood priorities, as at the of January 2016 showed –

·         14 projects being completed

·         39 projects rated green

·         6 projects rated amber

·         0 projects were rated red

A breakdown of organisational plan projects by Corporate Priority was provided for the Panel. Where projects had been rated amber an explanation about the issue(s) and action(s) that were being taken to address them was provided.

The report provided the latest position as the end of quarter 4 approached –

·         There were 14 completed projects

·         11 projects due to be completed by 31 March 2016

·         3 projects which would be carried over in to 2016/17 in order to complete

·         14 projects receiving new funding for 2016/17

·         17 projects which would carry over into 2016/17, as they had existing investment and were schedules to complete over multiple years

The 24 neighbourhood priorities was determined by the neighbourhood area meetings in January and February 2015, and agreed by Executive Cabinet in March 2015.  From this –

·         13 priorities were rated green

·         10 priorities had been completed

·         1 priority (Euxton, Astley, Buckshaw – Balshaw Lane Ponds and not been started.

On noting that the ‘Deliver the Steeley Lane/Gateway project was on hold, Councillor Khan enquired if that included the installation on CCTV as there was a lot of vandalism and anti-social behaviour.  It was explained that that CCTV was not part of the project, and it was thought that the possible delay was due to the relocation of the CCTV team in the police station.  Councillor Khan asked if an update could be provided.

In response to queries raised by members of the Panel in regards to the School Place Projections, it was confirmed that the Council liaised with Lancashire County Council on behalf of schools in the area, instead of approaching schools for information directly. 

Members of the Panel were informed that in relation to school growth the County Council were invited to include schools on the CIL 123 list.  Although the County Council did add some new schools to the list, extensions to existing schools to meet demand had not been put forward by the County Council.

The 123 list was expected to be reviewed in the next twelve months, and that this was a good opportunity for parish/town councils, ward councillors and chairs of governors to feed in to the process.  

The Director Customer and Advice Services explained that from September 2014, CIL money for Chorley was payable for new development schemes.  For those developments in parished areas, that particular parish would receive 15% of CIL monies, with no limitations as to how the money was spent.  It was reported that some parish councils had already started to receive CIL money.  Council’s however, were only permitted to spend CIL monies on infrastructure on the 123 list. 

Members of the Panel noted that the performance indicator for those people who regularly participated in volunteering was below target at 21% (the target being 25%). This indicator measured the proportion of the adult population who said that over the last 12 months they had given unpaid help once a month or more to any groups, clubs or organisations.  14% of residents said that they had given unpaid help to groups, clubs or organisations at least once a week, with 7% saying they had given unpaid help less than once a week but at least once a month.  The Head of Policy and Communications advised that the indicator, which had come from the residents’ survey, did not match with what was known about the success of the Time Credits Scheme within Chorley.  The 2015 evaluation report regarding Time Credits suggested that between August 2012-December 2014, 21,000 hours had been given by 1081 people through a network of 103 local groups and that 72% of Chorley Time Credits volunteers gave their time at least once a week.  The additional corporate strategy indicator for Volunteering; ‘CS 1.07% increase in the number of volunteering hours earned’ also returned a 36% increase at its last bi annual return (31/12/2015)

The level of avoidable contact continued to be a result of customers having to contact the Council to follow up on a service request that had not been fulfilled or had been closed off prematurely.  This was primarily an issue for high volume, transactional services such as waste and Streetscene and related to a proportionately small number of cases.   There were a number of systems in place to enable managers to monitor service fulfilment and technology was being continually updated to ensure effective management of service requests.  Regular performance monitoring was undertaken through Strategy Group and remedial action communicated to relevant managers and officers.

In response to questions raised by members of the Panel, the Head of Policy and Communications advised that the figures were monitored weekly, if not daily by the Contact Centre for the wider Council.  The figures included employees not responding to call-backs.  It was also about making sure someone was responding to tasks on behalf of colleagues who were absent from work due to leave or sickness. 

There was a discussion in regards to the percentage of remittances to suppliers by electronic means, and the increasing popularity of cheques being issued the Council had re-introduced printed remittance advice as an additional control on the accuracy of supplier bank account details.

Members of the Panel discussed the performance of various projects.

AGREED – that the report be noted, and that the CCTV